


Arcs and Dimensions

by Starr_Reborn



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, And sometimes dead parents, Baby Catra is the hero we don't deserve but need, Catra says "Neat" a lot, Fix-It of Sorts, Gay, Hordak is a good uncle, Light-Hearted, Multi, Only good parents here, Shadow Weaver is actually a good mom?, Silly, Worldbuilding?, i need to stop
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-11-16 02:11:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18085424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starr_Reborn/pseuds/Starr_Reborn
Summary: Life isn't too hard.Well, ok sure, Rifts rip open the very skies to spew out deadly toxins and horrible man-eating Monstrosities BUT! Uhhhh...Whatever. It's not that bad, anyone saying otherwise is a chump and a loser and deserves to get eaten.





	1. Short Chats

**Author's Note:**

> Another story I have no business starting but hey at least this one won't be angstyprobably
> 
> Also if you speak French the title of this prologue is a pun. And if you don't it's still a pun woopwoop

The Lady that takes her from the orphanage is the tallest, strangest type of lady she's  _ever_  seen. First off her hair is alive and Catra knows for a fact that hair isn't alive! Or it's not supposed to be, not like the Lady's, shifting and waving as though they're underwater. Would it hurt if she got a haircut? Would it bleed?

An-and then that's not even the weirdest! Well. Ok but it probably is... Her hands are all wrapped up in bandages like she's injured but there's no blood stink. So maybe she just has shy fingers.

Well, but the fingers aren't the only thing shy, what with the over-large sunglasses and the facemask like a doctor performing surgery.

 _She must be one of Them_ , Catra decides with single sharp nod to herself, jaw set forward lips slightly pursed. Only They are so strange so effortlessly.

"Do you know who I am?" The Lady has a deeper voice. Rasping and chilly even as she isn't being threatening or... She's definitely one of Them.

But Catra keeps quiet just now. Mouth twisting face pinching, she side-eyes the Lady and only cuz that writhing head of hair tilts does she think it safe to assume the Lady is eying her too.

"You're a Hunter!" The Lady kind-of chuckles. In the way that Catra's got really super good ears and hears the single little huff and it doesn't sound angry or anything. So yeah, chuckle!

Although she didn't say anything really funny. So that's pretty weird. Hunters are weird though.

"I  _was_  a Hunter." Catra  _just_  said that. Jeez. "I knew your father."

Huh.

"Neat." There's a shiny black car that the Lady Who Knew Dad ushers her into. It's not a limo. She'd seen other kids ride away in limos. This is a little underwhelming. "I know him too. I talk to him at night."

Leather seats, the color of deerskin. Not deer though. Doesn't smell like deer.

"Really?" The barest hint of a dark brow rising over the rim of her shades. Catra hums back, buckling herself in and it's So Final. She's  _really_  leaving this place. The Mum and the kids had never been awful, they were all orphans to dead Hunters here, but this wasn't...

"You talk to your father at night?" It might be aggravation or affection. Those are basically the same anyway.

"Yup! I mean, not really, but it feels like he'll hear me if I think of him, y'know?" One day she'll have legs long enough to kick through more than just the air. Why, she'll kick the seats, kick through them! She'll be able to crush a car and kick it through a building!

Ahh, maybe. Unless she's a Mage.

Dad was a Mage. Not that that matters, genetics had nothin to do with Class. But it could result in Special Skills, like Dad's! And like...

"Are you supposed to be my mom now? I had one but she left... If you leave do I have to go back to the orphanage?"

"I-" she gets a whole laugh now. Not a big long thing but it's more than that single breathy huff from before. "I'm your legal guardian."

"Soooo-"

"If you'd like me to be your mother-"

"Nah mom's suck. You're more like a sister or somethin. Like a, uhm, aunt!" Whoa. Ok that's a BIG laugh. "So what happens if you leave?"

"I won't be leaving."

"What it things change?"

"They won't."

"But what if they  _Do?"_  Lady-Who-Knew-Dad sighs and mutters something about a long car ride. Catra hopes that isn't true. She forgot to use the bathroom before they left.


	2. Auntie and Uncle don't date

_Catra Spinner._

It sounds kinda funny when she says it out loud.

Auntie says she doesn't have to take the name but it just seems right. She's a good one. Kinda reminds Catra of the Mum from the orphanage, nice and stuff but far away. Uhh.  _Distant_ , that's the word!

Maybe it's cuz of her face?

She got hurt on a mission with Dad.  _The Mission_  with Dad.

The Last One.

_~Fourteen went in and only five came out~_

Spooky.

Like the Man At The Door. Auntie told her not to open the door for strangers but she's been here a week and this is the first visitor so it doesn't count right? Mmmm, maybe she can say he let himself in?

"Mister are you supposed to be here?"

He smiles but he's got funny red teeth. It's creepy.

" _Auntiiiie_  there's a strange man heeeerrre!"

* * *

" _Never thought You'd be the first to mother up._ " His skin is blue. It's weird. Hunters, err, nu, new,  _new-troll-icers_  are weird.

Apparently Hunter was an  _arc-hay-ick_  word for their jobs. Dad had always called himself a Hunter. And then he'd pose and flex until she was laughing so hard it hurt.

But he's dead so he probably didn't really know anyway.

Auntie snorts and she shakes away memories of his voice calling her name to lean back towards the crack in the door, ears angled towards the adults in the parlor.

Also she learned what a parlor is recently!

" _It wasn't exactly by choice,_ " Auntie has her doctor mask pulled down to sip brown liquid from a glass. The skin around her mouth is really gross looking. Like it's horribly scarred but also rotting at the same time. Poor Auntie. " _It was the man's dying wish._ "

" _Still,_ " The Man - Auntie had called him Derek - chuckles and it's a fluffy sound. Uhh, like, um, soft and floofy. Light. " _You! I mean, I know his guts were in his hands but to ask You-_ "

" _Calm down there Hordak._ " It sounds like an insult and The Man - Derek? Hordak? - even hisses out an  _Ouch!_  when Auntie says it.

" _You wound me, Luxie_!" But he laughs. And then, gesturing grandly to her - spilling his drink on the floor to the tune of Auntie's growled  _Watch it!_  - he exclaims again, " _You!_ "

" _Yes, Me._ " Auntie sighs long and deep. " _Teach a kid how to play with fire..._ "

Huh. So that's how she knew Dad.

Neat.

* * *

"Were you Dad's mentor?" She barely waits for Auntie to wave goodbye and close the door before setting in on her. Mr. Derek had been nice even if he was a creepy half-robot. He didn't try to be creepy or a robot, he just was!

She got that.

She was smart, Dad always said so.

 _Too smart for your own good_ , he'd say. She wouldn't ask what he meant cuz then he might not think she was so smart.

"What makes you ask that?"

Her ears flatten against her skull, shoulders bunching up she shifts uncomfortably and chews on an _"Uhhhmm..."_  that just makes Auntie sigh but in a good way? Auntie doesn't chuckle and reach out to ruffle her mane like Dad used to but her eyes are a little gooey soft and she says,

"You were listening in, hmm?" And Catra nods, ears twitching back into place. "No, your father wasn't my apprentice. I've... never actually taken an apprentice."

Oh. But. She'd, she'd said, Err, she'd made it  _sound like_  she'd taught him...

There's the chuckle she'd thought might come after that sigh. Still no ruffled mane though.

"Officially speaking, your father was supposed to be a healer. He was a Carrier of Sunlight, well and capable of producing incredible works of light magic. But he  _wanted_  to be a Swordsman..."

* * *

Mr. Derek is here again only this time she knows for sure he's not a strangerous danger.

Auntie still yells at her for answering the door. She  _checked_  though. Doesn't that count for anything!?

"Don't mind that ol' hag. She's always been a stickler for the rules," and Mr. Derek rolls his eyes and grins real huge like it's super funny. It's  _not_  funny though, it's  _True_. Auntie nags A Lot.

It's for a good cause, she understands. Still annoying though.

Also! He ruffles her mane!

Her throat gets all thick and heavy and,

"Awww, sweet thing are you purring?" But she can't answer cuz he busies himself scratching at the base of her ears and it's soooo much better than when she scratches there herself.

Yup, this confirms it.

Mr. Derek is good people.

Auntie has to leave for a few hours and Catra can't come but Mr. Derek watching her in that time is good, she's been wondering something. Why, she can hardly wait to wave Auntie out the door before spinning to face Uncle Derek,

"What's a Hordak?"

* * *

It really is an insult to call him that.

Hordak opened Rifts, unleashed Chaos, killed millions. He was the reason Castle Grayskull had to be transformed and hidden away.

And that's really too bad. She tells him so with drooping ears and tail,

"But, but you  _look_  like a Hordak!"

And he winces, letting out a breath, " _Damn_  kid." ... "Err, I mean uh, d-darn, dang, dang it young one!"

"My Dad used to say adult words too, I won't tell Auntie." she tells him in whisper. It's a slightly loud whisper and she's not really sure why she felt the need to whisper but it makes Uncle Hordak grin.

Ruffled mane and a deep chuckle that remind her of Dad in a weird way. Kinda makes her lungs hot and chest, uh, pinched? Tight. Like it's getting squeezed.

It's definitely not neat.

And rubbing at it doesn't make the  _Ow_  go away. Maybe if she blows on it? Dad used to do that for scrapes and...

"Hey, hey little Magicat!" She blinks and her ears flick forward and Uncle Hordak is squatting in front of her and his smile is super fluffy like cottonball clouds in a blue, blue sky. But, uh, red cottonball clouds. "Wanna see a dead body?"

...she knows the answer to this question. Dad used to warn her about offers like this and what she's supposed to say and do in situations where it's brought up.

...

She  _knows_  the answer.  _Buuuuut,_

"Yes!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Baby Catra is v v fun to write.


	3. Nothing better than belonging

It takes three weeks for Auntie to find out Uncle Hordak lets her dance with skeletons whenever he watches her. (And he watches her A Lot.)

But he's a Lord of Death! Part robot cuz his own body began to fail after rising a particularly powerful creature. Not letting her play with his army of the dead is just cruel!

Auntie sighs at her and shakes her head but,

"You don't have any mice what else am I supposed to do?"

* * *

Hunt birds and squirrels in the garden.

Apparently.

* * *

She doesn't see Uncle Hordak for nearly a month.

* * *

" _What the fuck, Lux!?_ " She'd giggle at the rhyme but he'd said a  _super duper_ adult word! Dad told her all of them, and explained that she shouldn't use any til she was at least double digits, whatever that means.

But death and what's right are confusing.

So, under her breath,

"Fuck." It makes her lips tingle. It feels good to be bad.

Auntie scoffs, her ears twitch forward to listen better.

" _I think you know exactly 'What the fuck', **Hordak.**_ " It's not playful. Not at all.

" _Oh, so I tell the kid who Hordak is and I'm being Punished for that?_ "

" _You told her What?_ "

" _Just. What did I do, huh? That kid is a fuckin' angel and I would, I have, What is this about?_ "

" _You've let her play with magic._ "

" _...you Fucking serious Lux? I Know you Can't possibly be serious tell me you're joking._ "

...

She knows the door squeaks when it opens. Always grates on her, she's got very sensitive ears to be listening to hinges shriek so much! So yes, she knows the righteous racket it makes and she's still tempted to open it just a smidge, a, a crack to see what's happening.

What if they start fighting and she could have stopped it if only she'd been listening in  _and_  watching? They could be doing anything during this long stretch of silence and it's giving her the zooms.

" _That kid is guaranteed to become one of us._ "

" _You don't Know that Derek! She's got a chance, Had a chance, before you went and- Her Sol is impressionable, any encounter with active magic could-_ "

" _DAMNIT she Lives with you Lux!_ "

" _And I Can't Use Magic!_ "

...whoa.

Ok that's Definitely not neat.

* * *

She says nothing at dinner.

Nothing during bath time.

Nothing during story time before bed.

It's about a naked fancy frog, by the way.

She says nothing and she won't say anything but. But Auntie sighs and closes the frog book that smells older than Catra, spine creaking as the pages lay flat and Auntie puts it aside. Her hands fold together in her lap and if it weren't for that mask...

It's not the doctor mask. It's cool and smooth like glass but sorta like clay? It shows her eyes and nothing else at least and. She hopes one day Auntie can be comfortable enough to show her true colors.

Blueish gray, by the way. It's not natural. Auntie isn't natural in a way that even strange hunters, err... Hunters(! Cuz new trolls and their icing are silly!) would find strange.

And she can't use magic.

But she taught Dad how to play with fire!

And she really can't stop thinking at it. About that and how, sometimes, Auntie's hair isn't alive. How sometimes it's tufts of coarse dark coming from a scarred, ugly injured head of blueish gray with wispy shadows trying to spike up and hide the hurt.

"You were listening." It's not a question. She doesn't really know what to say. And that's pretty weird, Dad used to tell her she talked enough for three people and she'd tell him  _nuh-uh, enough for four!_  She's not used to having nothing to say.

Cuz she doesn't have nothing to say.

She's got lots to say.

But all the words are like splinters under the skin, all sharp angry little pricks she really can't grasp or even begin to pull out. Dad used to do it. With tweezers. But he's gone and her hands tremble when she tries to use them herself.

And Auntie sighs at her, her ears twitch and she looks at the masked woman settling tired eyes on her.

"You can ask, little one." Maybe she smiles behind the bone-white mask. The mouth on the mask is almost a pout, heavy full lips painted a shiny gold. Fragile like a doll. Like the look in Auntie's eyes. Easy to shatter.

"Where'd your magic go? You used to have it so. Something bad happened, right?"

"...Yes. Something very bad happened to me."  _Brittle_. That's the word. Brittle and big. Not, not like  _Big_ , but uh, like a big room with nothing in it. Empty? No that's not...

"Is that why you don't want me to be a Hunter?" She squeaks like a pounced-on mouse. She doesn't like it. She's Not a mouse. Not a thing to be hunted, not.  _Not..._

"Yes." Less hesitation. Much less. Auntie didn't even correct her  _arc-hay-ick_  word. "You could be  _anything_. Even if your Sol develops, you could still be anything you don't have to throw yourself into a life like-"

"Dad's. And yours. And Uncle's."

The look in her eyes brittle and big again. And Auntie says, "Yes." but even the word is big and brittle.

...

"I want to be like you. And Uncle. And,"  _ow_. It's. It hurts. It's stuck. It's, " _Dad._ "

She startles, head jerking up to look Auntie in her sleepy sad eyes. The hand on her head doesn't pull away.

"I know," Auntie says and maybe they're super important words because softer and just  _more_ , "I know."

* * *

Uncle shows up two days later. Auntie is watching and even with the mask on it  _feels_  disapproving. Pursed lips or perhaps a grim frown lie behind that shiny golden almost-pout.

They hug and he spins her around until she squeals.

When he puts her down his hand plants itself on top of her head and they face Auntie together. There's a big heavy heaviness between them and it makes her ears flatten, tail twitch and flick with the restless anxiety. Auntie looks at them. They look at Auntie.

Uncle Hordak is especially serious.

Auntie doesn't really sigh. It's just a heavy breath that could almost be dressed up as a sigh. She says,

"Take care of our girl?" And Catra has never belonged to anyone 'cept Dad. Makes her insides feel all cottony. Fluffy and warm.

Uncle Hordak doesn't smile his funny red smile but he does nod once, a sharp little jerk, and tells Auntie,

"Of course.  _Always_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Baby Catra is my heart I really love writing for her. Especially when she treated like the precious gift that she is. Also, the word Catra was looking for when she was using 'big' was 'hollow'
> 
>  
> 
> I sang karaoke on a pier in public today. I've got terrible stage fright so I was literally shaking the whole time BUT I crushed it y'all, with Queen songs!!


End file.
